SANTIVA TODAY: Hurricane Season Over; Recovery Far from Over

Sanibel
and Captiva islands woke up Friday morning with the knowledge that
the 2017 Atlantic Basin Hurricane season is officially over.

While
we realize that tropical storms can't read their own press clippings,
it does appear that this historically bad hurricane season is
finished. The warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and
Gulf of Mexico have cooled down, thereby robbing potential storms of
fuel. The experts say the hurricane season that dealt America Harvey,
Irma and Maria in a rapid and devastating procession is gone. As of
Friday morning, Dec. 1, the National Hurricane Center in Miami is
tracking nothing. The Atlantic is void of tropical storm activity.

Also
gone from Sanibel and Captiva are the massive piles of debris
generated by Irma on Sunday, Sept. 10. It took weeks of island
occupation by massive claw trucks to gather it all up and turn it
into mulch, and it cost a pretty penny.

Irma
struck Marco Island and parts of Naples as a Category 4 hurricane. It
moved inland and cut a damaging swath through much of Florida. The
Irma story had three parts. First is the storm itself. Second is the
massive evacuation that created snarling traffic jams spanning
hundreds of miles. Third is the cleanup. Thankfully, Irma swerved
inland after it left Naples and that caused it to drop to Category 2
by the time it reached Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva. Because Irma
lost strength, Lee County didn't get the storm surge that a Cat 4
would have produced.

But
we could all see what Irma, even as a Cat 2, dealt. All that
considered, in this hurricane season, Irma checks in as No. 3. After
seeing what Irma did here, it's hard to imagine what a Category 4 or
5 looks like. It's hard to imagine until imagination becomes reality.
Harvey and Maria, like Hurricane Charley here in 2004, were reality.

Harvey
came first in late August. Current estimates are that Harvey cost
about $200 billion, eclipsing Hurricane Katrina as our nation's most
costly natural disaster ever. Harvey killed 90 Americans.

Maria
was already a big storm while Irma was coming through here. Maria got
to Category 5 on Sept. 18 and goes down as one of the 10 most intense
Atlantic hurricanes on record. There's no way to sugarcoat it –
Maria flattened Puerto Rico. Food, water, power and any other
essential are still needed in Puerto Rico, a territory of the United
States populated by American citizens. The official death toll is
something like 55 to 58, but news reports indicate it could really be
10 times that.

We're
not asking for any help here. Irma hassled islanders with a nasty
evacuation and it made a big mess. But we all lived and life is
normal here. The same cannot be said for the Florida Keys (Irma),
places on the Texas coast like Port Aransas (Harvey) and anywhere on
the island of Puerto Rico (Maria).

We
can think of no time when the news cycle is as busy as it is today.
The probe over Russian meddling in our election plods along. North
Korea is shooting off missiles that can reach the U.S. One at a time,
members of Congress, an Alabama man who wants to be in Congress, film
moguls and prominent news personalities have been exposed for varying
degrees of sexual misconduct. A tax plan that will affect us all is
moving through Congress. Lunatics have committed mass murder in New
York, Texas and Nevada. If all that's not enough, President Trump
stirs the pot daily with his tweets. Hurricanes were topics to be
wedged in among all the other stories.

Harvey,
Irma and Maria are still getting coverage – locally. The networks
have necessarily moved on. The Weather Channel was still covering
Harvey when Irma approached. It left Harvey for Irma. It was still
covering Irma when Maria approached. It left Irma for Maria. And this
is The Weather Channel. All it does is weather, but even The Weather
Channel was stretched to the limit in covering these storms.

Our
government learned from Katrina and it responded well to Harvey and
Irma. But Puerto Rico is an island. Trucks can't be driven there. Our
government's response to Maria was atrocious, despite President Trump
claiming otherwise. Power to at least half the island, perhaps more,
is still out.

This
hurricane season was one for the books. Now it's over and we are in
the holiday season. News coverage has moved on. We got spared by
Irma, but many were not spared. Let's keep those people in our hearts
this holiday season and perhaps help in any way we can.

Thanks for the reminder for all of us about those other places and other people who still suffer. Our story here was truly luck...and an organized local government.This comment has been hidden due to low approval.